Despite a very lively race on Monday from Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, the 67th edition of Paris-Troyes did finish in a bunch sprint. Ideally positioned until the last kilometre, Eliott Boulet was however boxed in in the final moments and was unable to deliver his effort at the end. The young Frenchman therefore finished outside the top 20, while Italian Juan David Sierra won.
Although the 180 kilometres of Paris-Troyes included no major climbs or steep slopes, the 2,000 meters of elevation gain promised a demanding day nonetheless, especially since no one was willing to really control the race from the start. This led to a frantic and rather crazy first half of the race. “There was a pretty hard fight,” confirmed Jérôme Gannat. “A first proper breakaway of fourteen riders got away with Reef in it. They took thirty seconds, it was an interesting group, but Roubaix-Van Rysel was missing, so they chased behind. The leading group still held on for a short while, but it then all came back together. After that, there was another tough battle, and a group of ten riders broke away without us at the halfway point. It was a good break that included some of our direct rivals. It could have been dangerous, but they never took more than a minute and a half because some teams went to pull immediately. As for us, we came to ride a bit later, 50-60 kilometres from the finish.”
“These are the hazards of sprinting”, Jérôme Gannat
With 50 kilometres to go, the gap was reduced to under a minute, and it continued to decrease heading towards Troyes. “It stayed at 30 seconds for a long time, but it wasn’t too worrying, and it prevented any counterattacks,” added Jérôme. “At that point, there were only four of us left in the peloton, with Eliott being our leader for the sprint. Reef did a great job, and Titouan rode well too.” With more than twenty kilometers to go, the breakaway was caught, and then a few riders tried to launch other attacks in the final without ever managing to take a significant gap. However, Morten Nortoft still held on until the final kilometre, before being caught as the sprint was launched. “We had a good card with Eliott, who won a sprint in the Tour de Bretagne,” Jérôme said. “He was very well positioned with 500 metres to go, right on the wheel of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, who were leading out their sprinter. There was a slight right curve in the sprint, and we saw last year that launching from a distance could work. Eliott wanted to pass on the right, take the bend tightly, but as he opened his sprint, the rider in front of him stopped pedalling and boxed him in. Eliott’s chain jumped off, he almost crashed, and from then on, the sprint was over.”The young Frenchman was unable to make the most of his chances and crossed the line in 25th position. “It’s a shame it ended like this, but we know that a sprint is never straightforward, especially in these Class 2 races where there aren’t really any trains or organization,” Jérôme concluded. “Eliott had the legs to finish the day’s work in a good way, but these are the hazards of sprinting, where everything can end with an unfortunate move. He had the right timing, because we had told him to launch between 300 and 250 metres, which he did. There was space when he launched, but it closed down right after. It’s frustrating, but that’s how it is. I will remember that when we had to ride behind the breakaway, we did what we had to do, even if the group wasn’t complete. That’s encouraging.”
